Meaning & use
foster family
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A family that takes a child into their home and cares for them for a period because the child's own parents cannot.
Grammar: Countable: a foster family, two foster families; usually takes a singular or plural verb depending on style.
Patterns
- a foster family for someone
- live with a foster family
The boy lived with a foster family for two years while his mother recovered.
They became a foster family after their own children left home.
The agency searched for a foster family that could take two siblings.
Word forms
| plural | foster families |
|---|
Common combinations
- live with a foster family
- She lived with a foster family until she was eighteen.
- become a foster family
- They decided to become a foster family after seeing the need.
- place with a foster family
- The child was placed with a foster family the same day.
- loving foster family
- He thanked his loving foster family at the ceremony.
- foster family agency
- A foster family agency matches children with homes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- host family
- A host family hosts a visitor such as an exchange student, while a foster family cares for a child who needs a home.
- adoptive family
- An adoptive family becomes the child's permanent legal family, which a foster family usually does not.
- foster home
- Foster home names the house or placement, whereas foster family names the people.
- carers
- Carers is a British term for those who look after someone and is broader than foster family.
Opposites
Word family
- foster verb
- to bring up a child that is not your own, or to encourage something
- foster child noun
- a child looked after by a foster family
- foster parent noun
- an adult who fosters a child
- fostering noun
- the system of caring for foster children
Commonly confused: foster family or adoptive family?
foster family vs adoptive family
An adoptive family has permanently become the child's legal family, while foster care is usually temporary.
Practice
The child stayed with a ___ for a year while social workers helped her mother get back on her feet.
Choose one answer.
A family caring for a child temporarily because the parents cannot is a foster family. A host family would hosts a visitor, which is tempting but different.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foster family”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.